DARING BANK RAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14157, 4 September 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

DARING BANK RAID.

AUDACIOUS ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN £120,000.

A daring attempt was made a few weeks ago to defraud four London banks of £120,000.

The banks in question each received, on the same morning, a cablegram from Rio de Janeiro in the bank cypher, properly authenticated by secret code words, directing them to pay to a certain man mentioned, whose .address was given at a Bloomsbury hotel, the sum of nearly £30,000, and to charge the senders of the cablegram with the amount.

A call was first made at the Russian Bank in Gracechurch-street. The magnitude of the sum asked for had made the officials suspicious, and tho hitter's answers to questions not proving satisfactory, an appointment was made for another day. Communication was opened with Bio dc Janeiro, and it transpired that the cablegram was a forgery and had been sent by a man who was formerly an employee of the South American Bank. Meanwhile three other men had called at three other banks on precisely similar errands, but with no more success than that achieved by the first. The city police, as soon as they received notification of the facts, advised the City banks and other banking houses throughout the country of the form of fraud which the men were attempting to practise. A description of tho caller at the Russian Bank has been secured. He is described as being of powerful build, broadshouldered, about 35 years of age, height sft llin, little black moustache, swarthy, wearing cropped bla.ck hair, speaking French fluently, wearing a frock coat &:id top hat, and at times pince-nez. Inquiries at the Bloomsbury hotel show that the man had been associated with another man who is described as a German, 26 years of age, sft 6in in height, fair hair, slight moustache,* slight squint, slight build, and wearing a light gr*y suit and panama hat.